The Shophound

FLAGSHIP FLASH: More Expansion In Store For Giorgio Armani On Madison Avenue As His Boutique Re-Opens

Giorgio Armani unveils a revamped, updated Madison Avenue home this week (pictured at right), but the real news for New York shoppers will be the return of Emporio Armani to Madison as well as the first Armani Junior children's store in North America all the way up at 88th and Madison. It will be well out of the way of the shopping street's most glamorous boutiques, but perfectly placed closer to Carnegie Hill's cluster of luxury children's boutiques.

Emporio Armani will re-appear on Madison Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets in a former home that had been converted to a unique Armani Collezioni store when the huge Armani 5th Avenue brand palace opened couple of years ago. Most recently, it had served as a temporary store for the main collection during renovations on the original boutique at the corner of 65th Street. While the Collezioni line will presumably remain as a label aimed at wide distribution at department stores line Saks and Neiman Marcus, WWD reports that Giorgio Armani's newly aggressive expansion will focus on the main collection and Emporio. Twelve new stores are expected to open in North America this year including three stores for the main collection, eleven Emporio units and the aforementioned junior store. Reportedly, Armani volume dipped after the turn of the century, but is currently on the rebound.

While the big brand palace on Fifth Avenue seems to be meeting its mission of delighting tourists, Armani is now turning its focus back to where rich New Yorkers really shop: Madison Avenue. Expect the new Emporio and Junior stores to be open in late Spring or early Summer

Armani Plots Aggressive Expansion in North America (WWD)

WORLD CUP SPECIAL: New Photos Surface of Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani

The Shophound is still on a reduced schedule for a few days, but it would be wrong of us not to pass along these nice photos of Soccer Star Cristiano Ronaldo that the fine folks at Giorgio Armani have kindly sent to us. It would be selfish to hog them. The shots are from the Fall/Winter 2010-11 Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani Underwear campaigns and have been released just in time for maximum World Cup publicity. It's good to see that he is still taking care of himself. Don't forget to click the images for a full-sized view.

Cintra Wilson Goes Shopping: Church Of Armani Edition

This week's Thursday Styles finds Critical Shopper Cintra Wilson in a more reverent frame of mind than we have seen thus far. Our shopper has been nearly hushed into submission by the Armani|5th Avenue brand palace that opened earlier this year. Leading with a Wiliam Faulkner quote (!), she puts aside her shopping gadfly persona, recounting the history of Giorgio Armani as if transformed into an adoring acolyte —until she wasn't anymore,

Armani Casa occupies a corner of the second floor. These are unaffordable housewares in black lacquer, leather and chrome, all of which belong in Mickey Rourke’s apartment in “9 1/2 Weeks.” In that spirit, I hovered around an Art Deco tea set (teapot $1,395; creamer, $910) with the intention of beating up anyone capable of buying it.

And she's back.
La Cintra is mostly piqued about the elusive price tags on the more expensive items which would prompt the cruel, old adage, "If you you have to ask how much it costs, then you can't afford it." Of course, that discovery can't be much of a surprise chez Armani.
Ultimately, she is taken, or at least amused by, the monumental quality of the place,

Armani|5th Avenue will likely survive as long as Fifth Avenue does. Like the Pyramids, it was built as an indelible valentine to the invisible worlds ahead.

But is it destined, like the pyramids, to one day become a symbol of a mysterious culture now extinct? More importantly, is it merely a coincidence that the article will run on the very day that every label in the store will be available at a sample sale in Chelsea?
Stranger things have been known to happen.
Critical Shopper | Armani|5th Avenue: Indulging His Every Indulgence By Cintra Wilson (NYTimes)
Armani|5th Avenue 717 Fifth Avenue at 56^th Street, Midtown
Giorgio Armani Sample Sale November 19^th - 21^st, Metropolitan Pavilion 123 West 18^th Street, 4^th Floor Gallery, Chelsea

Today In Underpants: Armani Switches Footballers Beckham Out. Ronaldo In.

Giorgio Armani has a new sports icon to plaster all over town.
Portuguese football star and international heartthrob Christiano Ronaldo (right) has been named the new "official worldwide testimonial" for Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans. We assume this means he will be appearing in his underpants on billboards all over the world starting early next year. He replaces David Beckham who declined to renew his contract with the designer. So far no new images have been released, so we have to rerun these old Beckham pictures. We know it pains you to have to look at them again, but as soon as we have the fresh media we promise to get it out to you as soon as possible. Beckham is said to be pursuing an underwear deal of his own, so you can still expect to see him in him in his skivvies for years to come.
Basically it's a win-win.
Fashion Scoops: Beckham Said Seeking Underwear Deal (WWD) & Shophound Inbox

Diffusion Du Jour: Saks Scores An Armani Exclusive

Few designers are as skillful at managing multiple collections at varying price points as Giorgio Armani. Ever since his premier diffusion line Emporio Armani was made available here during the 1980s, it has been one of the most sparingly distributed, sold only at Emporio Armani stores of which there are still only fourteen in the United States. Now that the label's licensed accessories have been distributed more widely, and the Beckhams have drawn huge awareness to the brand's underwear, the fine people at Armani have kindly informed us that Saks Fifth Avenue will now be the first retailer to launch the main Emporio Armani men's collection in seven stores starting around now. Those locations will include Fifth Avenue, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, San Diego and Tyson's Corner Virginia outside of Washington DC. This is the sort of introduction that, in our humble observation, typically leads to a storewide rollout if successful, and could possibly push a similar expansion of the ladies' line.
The thought crossed our mind that this may be some consolation for the fact that, due to tight distribution and exclusivity conflicts, Saks has few (if any) stores that are permitted to sell the top Giorgio Armani Collection for men, though the women's counterpart is sold in several of it's branches including New York. Perhaps the folks at Armani are mollifying the folks at Saks, who have surely been anxious to add the top line for quite some time now. They may ultimately be better off with an even more exclusive label at gentler, far more appealing prices. We'll call it a coup.
Emporio Armani (Official Site)

Today In Switcheroos: Emporio Armani Madison Avenue Converts To Collezioni

We were mistaken yesterday when we wrote that the new Armani brand palace on Fifth Avenue duplicated  his offerings nearby on Madison Avenue. In fact the uptown Emporio Armani shop has been converted to be a flagship for Armani Collezioni, the line once known as "white label" which is distributed primarily to department stores with locations deemed not quite exclusive enough for the main Giorgio Armani collection. It, like A|X, is not sold in the new superstore. So far as we know there are very few of these, all of them overseas, making this the first one in the US. This leaves the SoHo location as the only one solely devoted to Emporio in New York. At the moment, that would seem to be enough.
Armani Collezioni 601 Madison Avenue between 57^th & 58^th Streets, Midtown

Megastore Debut:Armani/5th Avenue

Through an odd coincidence, The Shophound found ourselves without any fashion show invitations on Wendesday. While this could have been a disturbing development, we were actually kind of relieved. We could have just gone to the tents and seen a few shows with extra standing room, or watched them on the mentors, but we were relishing the day off. While the temptation to simply remain in bed was strong, we eventually picked ourselves up and made our way to Giorgio Armani's newly opened Armani/5^th Avenue superstore that just opened with a glittery launch party this week.
What do we call this amalgam of the designer's various lines? Is it a flagship? Doesn't each brand have its own multi-level flagship on Madison Avenue? This is a sort of Armani Mega-center. With four floors, the store covers only the designer's core labels. Mall focused stepchild A|X Armani Exchange is a joint venture, though Armani has recently increased his stake, and Armani Collezioni is a first cousin who lives only in department stores.
The clear centerpiece here is a swooping staircase that connects each level. While the previous inhabitant, Hugo Boss, created an airy, open interior, Armani uses the staircase to make a swirling tunnel from which shoppers can emerge at their chosen department. Covered in white, the installation will be a challenge to clean and maintain. Dark scuff marks were already visible near the floor, and we can imagine some hapless char person tasked with scrubbing the stairs every evening after hours.
Starting at the top we have men's clothing and shoe lines with the main Giorgio Armani label side by side with Emporio, the still pricey "diffusion" brand. Up here we also found a chocolate counter named Armani Dolci, the home collection, Armani Casa (whose presence was minimal) and the Armani Ristorante featuring an expansive view of Fifth Avenue. We began to wonder if the restroom had a sign over the door reading Armani Toilette. One flight down, we found the women's apparel lines along with a cosmetics counter. The street level features the high margin goods including a wall of sunglasses and watches and cases of accessories, mirroring the merchandising concepts of the Gucci megastore a few blocks uptown. Downstairs is relegated to Armani Jeans, Emporio underwear, swimwear and a small presentation of the EA7 active sportswear brand.
It's a lavish presentation, and it goes without saying that eighteen months ago it must have looked like a fabulous idea to replicate the megastore concept that Armani had implemented in other major international cities. There's no accounting for timing these days, but we couldn't help noticing that both the main collection and Emporio were already available with a much better selection in their own large boutiques only blocks away. This is the kind of sumptuous, promotional brand statement that luxury labels have begun to question in the past year. The question here is not whether Giorgio Armani could make a big, fabulous store. That was already a foregone conclusion. At issue is whether or not he can do it profitably in this climate, which remains to be seen.
Armani/5^th Avenue Fifth Avenue at 56^th Street, Midtown

Today In Alter Egos:Giorgio Armani JoinsThe Bat Brigade

Apparently, Bruce Wayne wears Giorgio Armani Hand Made To Measure, at least that's what Madison Avenue's Armani boutique is telling us.
Ordinarily, we would have thought that the designer would have kept his top collections free of Summer blockbuster cross promotional activities, but then again, Mr. Armani knows firsthand just how effective creating a film wardrobe can be in promoting a brand. Hell, Richard Gere practically launched the label by wearing it in American Gigolo.
This time, however, Armani is explicitly using billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, not Christian Bale, the actor who portrays him, as his celebrity spokesperson. It may be the first time the designer has tapped a fictional character for such duties. Somehow, we suspect that had Armani recruited Bale himself as a spokesperson, the actor might have made a lot more money out of the deal, but we think he is probably doing OK anyway. The free Armani clothes he must be getting are probably worth it by themselves.
This effort, of course, puts Giorgio Armani in unusual company on the roster of companies participating in The Dark Knight's promotion, which includes Nokia, Hershey, Comcast, Microsoft XBox, Domino's Pizza and the California Milk Processor Board.
It's always nice to make new friends.
Oh, and not to gloat, but we're supposed to see the movie tonight. In IMAX.
Previously: Today In Superheroes: Nokia Goes Batty

Today In Superheroes:Junk Food Loves Gap Kids

It's possible that by this time next year, we will all be so sick and tired of superheroes that we will never want to see another caped crusader again.
Possible, but not likely.
After all, with Iron Man and The Hulk running, we've still got a Batman, a Punisher, Hancock and Hellboy on deck at the nation's multiplexes. In the meantime, Batgirl on a motorbike is speeding across the front of the Gap on Fifth Avenue!
Inside, she, Wonder Woman and Supergirl (all Bronze Age Pre-Crisis versions, if that remotely means anything to you) are hanging out in the name of Girl Power to promote the Gap's latest collaboration, Junk Food Loves Gap Kids.
This is the latest array of faux vintage t-shirts for kids made in collaboration with Junk Food Clothing, famous for their faux vintage t-shirts for grown-ups. Gap's little side-shop now holds a pint-sized nostalgia trip with the lady superheroes as well as Hello Kitty, Little Miss and several other vintage characters for girls along with Batman, Iron Man, Star Wars and various other 20th century  media phenomena for boys, all weathered and distressed to look like long lost souvenirs from your own third grade wardrobe. While it's pretty certain that the cultural significance of a weathered "Super Friends" tee is mostly lost on today's five year olds, it also proves once again that dressing children these days is all about gratifying their parent's sense of nostalgia.
Shop Junk Food Loves Gap Kids (Official site)

The Inevitable ArmaniPhone is Coming

You could say that Dolce & Gabbana were the first out of the gate, but we wouldn't call slapping a logo on a MOTORAZR designing a phone so much as it was a marketing opportunity. The we had the LG Prada Phone, a huge success in...well...not here where it was pulled from distribution. Now amid talk about making a personal statement with our phones blah blah blah, we hear news that Giorgio Armani is joining forces in a long term, strategic partnership with Samsung to create a super thin and flat phone with, get ready for this, a full touch screen user interface, 3-megapixel camera, music player and full web browser.
Sound familiar?
Of course, the leather case is a new twist, however predictable.
The phone will be available through Armani boutiques as well as electronics stores that have been deemed suitably upscale to carry the Giorgio Armani brand.
As with the Prada phone, no U.S. carriers have been named as partners as of yet, so while this latest little designer fetish item is expected to become available in Europe in November, we have no idea when or if it will be available Stateside at all. On the Continent, the retail price will be €650 which translates to over $900 at current rates. Surely we can expect similarly priced unlocked models to appear here just in time for Christmas.
Beyond the phone, however, Armani and Samsung plan to introduce an Armani/Casa LCD screen TV in January. Exactly what distinctions Armani plans to bring to television remain to be seen, but in the meantime, we'll wait for the rest of the fashion world to catch up. Imagine what must be coming; the PoloPhone, DKNY Mobile, GucciPhone, DiorPhone, etc. etc.
The mind reels.
Armani, Samsung Start Electronics Line (WSJ)
Samsung and Giorgio Armani team up on mobile phones, LCD TVs (Endgadget)
Previously: Prada's Phone Not Coming To a Store Near You